BY Rizal Raoul Reyes, Contributor
IN A recent press briefing at the Mapúa University, Dr. Rick Shangraw, president of Cintana Education, told reporters that university administrators should also include faculty members and the students as well in crafting a policy to manage the use of AI.
“All universities must practice what we universally call shared governance,” Shangraw said.
Mapúa University is taking significant strides in embedding Artificial Intelligence (AI) into its curriculum, aiming to prepare students for a technologically driven world. It has introduced courses like “Basic Prompt Engineering with ChatGPT: An Introduction” and “AI Foundations: Scripting ChatGPT with Python,” aiming to demystify AI technologies and enhance learners’ abilities to develop machine learning models and automate tasks.
This move aligns with Mapúa’s collaboration with Arizona State University (ASU), recognized for its innovation, to introduce more AI-centric courses. These educational efforts are part of the university’s commitment to ensuring students are ready for a future dominated by automation and data-driven decision-making.
Mapúa’s efforts to integrate AI into education highlight its commitment to academic excellence and preparing students for the challenges and opportunities of the digital age.
As far as the need to implement specific policies are concerned, the former chief executive office of the Arizona State University Enterprise Partners said there is a need to put specific policies in place in the use of AI. He added some national frameworks have been developed in the United States on how to use AI in higher education. Right now, Shangraw said universities and other educational institutions must take a serious look at shared governance in AI because this is going to be the driving force of societies shortly.
“And I think that’s the reason why we can’t finalize it because we’re trying to actually hit the final version of it. So, I think we should have a living document where we can continuously upgrade as we evolve,” he pointed out.
Mapí¹a University president Dodgie Maestrocampo agreed with Shangraw that all hands must be on deck in the management of the use of AI in the universities. Being a dynamic field, he said the stakeholders must be flexible and agile to adapt to the changes because AI continues to evolve.
Maestrocampo also mollified the fear that AI will stifle creative and critical thinking, pointing out that generative AI will “provide very answers” to the problems that are being tackled by students.
“I think this is exactly where there’s an opportunity for higher education to come in because it is continuing to train our graduates to be not only prepared for their first job, but for their last job,” Maestrocampo stressed adding that AI can help students to prepare for their first or last job of their working lives because it can provide them forward-looking skills.
Shangraw said faculty members at the Arizona State University are using AI as a teaching tool to help students restructure their arguments through Chat GPT (Generative Pre-training Transformer). After getting the results, he said the teachers will help the students on finalizing their research projects.
“I think the good approach is that we should not ask the student to just submit a report. We have to make sure that we engage them in improving our task to address higher order thinking skills,” he said.
To enhance its AI curriculum, the Yuchengco-led Mapúa University established a groundbreaking collaboration with Arizona State University (ASU) — the leading most innovative university in the United States for the ninth consecutive year by U.S. News & World Report 2016-2024, the introduction of these courses and modules falls under the university’s mission to innovate and provide state-of-the-art solutions to community and industry issues. More AI-related courses and modules will soon be made available for Mapúa University students. — with Raymond B. Tribdino